Environment matters

Everything we do in our gardens has an impact on the environment. With a large nursery and over 3,500 plant varieties to care for, we at Crocus have to be particularly conscious of our actions.

We believe in making the right decisions for the environment; so we’re committed to doing all we can to minimise our impact on the environment around us and work to make our business as sustainable as possible.

Bees & neonictinoides

We take the plight of the bees very seriously. We keep our own bee hives here on the nursery, and both our directors are keen beekeepers with their own hives at home. We stopped using the 3 neonicotinoids that are linked to problems with bees on the nursery well before the law was changed, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that the plants we sell to you are free from clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

We use over 60 specialist growers and suppliers and they know how passionate we are about the issue. However, none of us can be completely certain that every plant is free of chemical residue. So we could never say categorically that all our plants are neonic-free, even if it is our sincerest wish.

Our propagation unit

Neonictinoides, and the wider issue of disease and pest transmission from outsourced plants, has meant that we have invested in a new propagation unit which should give us increasing levels of biosecurity as our own production accelerates. It will also give us ever new opportunities to grow unusual and rare plants that previously we were unable to offer! More for you to enjoy and more for the bees to pollinate!

We aim to source 85% of our plants from the UK by 2020.

Energy efficient lighting

We use LEDs to light our warehouse which has cut our energy usage by 60%.

Potting up plants

Following trials, we now use a reduced peat mix for all our plants made up of 30% less peat.

Electric buggies

We replaced all of our diesel vehicles with Electric buggies to reduce our impact on the environment.

Water recycling

As a nursery, we inevitably use a vast amount of water. Determined to work in a sustainable way, we built a network of channels across our 30 acre site to collect the waste water from the nursery and the buildings onsite into a reservoir which is then reused to water plants on the nursery. We reduced our water usage by 85%.

Warehouse heating from waste material

We installed a wood burner in 2010 which is capable of burning most of our waste material - pallets, cardboard etc, which would previously have been sent to landfill. The heat generated by the wood burner contributes to warming our warehouses over the colder months. We reduced our oil usage by 100%.

Recyclable packaging

As we send out over a million plants each year we have to use the right amount of packaging to ensure that they arrive with you in optimal condition. In 2010 we made sure all of our boxes were made from recyclable cardboard so that they can be used again.